


Bent.

by mutatives



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, DeanCas - Freeform, Destiel - Freeform, Domestic, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I don't know what else to tag, Love Confessions, M/M, dean gets cured by other means
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 18:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7769038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutatives/pseuds/mutatives
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel gives up the last of his stolen grace to cure Dean. It takes a while to mend.</p><p>(Spoilers up to S10E02 - Reichenbach.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bent.

**Author's Note:**

> I was looking through my old files. AND I FOUND THIS. I wrote this right after the episode was released in 2014. I figure I'd post it, even though I'm not even into Supernatural anymore. Hope you enjoy xx This is a oneshot by the way.

 

"Cas, I can't thank you enough," Sam says and moves in to hug his friend. "I don't think I can ever repay you."

"That's alright," Castiel replies, "Having the real Dean back is the best thing I could ask for, all I needed was my stolen grace."

"But you're human now."

"I know," Castiel smiles, "I am human, yes, but I'm tired of being an angel, and I'm shamelessly happy to spend the rest of my short lifespan with the both of you."

"We could stop hunting, for a while, we deserve a break." Sam suggests.

"We could."

Dean wakes up a few minutes later. The first thing he sees with his green eyes are his brother and his best friend, and they are smiling as Sam frees him from the chair. He smiles back. He's cured.

But then the memories come flooding in. He rushes out of the dungeon as soon as Sam's done with the cuffs and locks himself into his room, ignoring their pleas for him to come back.

+

"Dean, we can fix this," Castiel pleads through the door, "Let me in."

"I don't expect you to understand," Dean replies quietly, "The things I did, Cas, I did things that I told myself that I would never do, how do you expect me to be okay with that?"

Castiel is silent for a moment. "Me and Sam have screwed up more times than we could ever dare to count," He admits, "But we pushed through it, and you can do the same, please, let me in."

"You fucking thought that what you were doing the right thing! I knew the shit that I was doing was bad, believe me, and guess what? I didn't give a damn! I'm not as good as you or Sammy, never will be."

Castiel slams the door, "Dean Winchester, don't ever dare to think of yourself in such a self-depreciating way ever again!" He yells, "I did not give up the last ounces of my stolen grace so you could lock yourself in your room and sulk."

"What, did you think that I'd be okay after I was cured? That I'd be just fine and that we could all go out for ice cream and strippers to celebrate? Well, I'm sorry, Cas, but the world just doesn't work that way."

"Dammit, Dean! I didn't expect you to be okay," Castiel says, brokenly. "I expected you to let me in so I could help you. Dean, you took on the mark because you knew you could kill Abaddon and Metatron with it, there was no way that you could have known that it would turn you into a demon. It's not your fault. Me and Sam, we'll help you. Please, open the door."

Dean doesn't reply for a while, and Castiel slides his hands down the door in defeat.

Just as he's about to go, the door opens. Castiel rushes in. "You mean that?" Dean asks. His eyes are rimmed red, and is clutching an almost-empty bottle of Jack.

"We're family, you and I," Castiel smiles, "I need you too, Dean."

"But you're human."

"Yes, but it is a small price to pay to get my friend back."

Dean sniffs, but he's smiling. He places the bottle on his nightstand, "Thank you, thank you so much," Dean stands up and wraps his arms around Castiel's torso, "I'll make it up to you," He buries his head into Castiel's shoulder.

"You already have."

They're silent for a long time, but in retrospect, it's the best silence that they've had in a while.

+

"You know what?" Hannah asks Castiel as he shows her around the bunker, "I'm glad, you would have died if you waited for it to fade."

"It wasn't about keeping myself alive," Castiel says, he places his hand on her shoulder, "You will do an amazing job ruling Heaven."

"Hey," Dean greets from where he's sitting on an armchair as he sees the pair walking into the lounge, "Cas, I made you a burger, you can eat it after you finish giving Hannah the tour, I'll leave it on the table."

"Thank you, Dean." Castiel grins, "Hannah, I'll show you to the shooting range?"

Hannah ignores his invitation, "I think I understand why you decided to give up your grace to cure Dean,"

"Yes," Castiel replies, "You can go far to save the ones you love."

+

"Metatron is dead," Hannah reports as she appears into the room, "He snapped, and I killed him. I'm sorry, Castiel. I know you didn't want me to."

"Dude, that's fine," Dean replies instead, "Actually, that's great, that's really damn great."

"And that is not all. Castiel, he also told me how to find your grace in attempt to convince me to spare him his life."

They're silent for a bit, none of them knowing what to say. Dean breaks the silence a few moments later by offering Hannah a homemade burger.

 _He's getting better_ , Hannah remarks to herself. _Happier_.

"I suppose I can try a bite," Hannah says. Castiel and Sam would say something if they weren't stuffing their face with Dean's burgers already. Hannah really likes them, it turns out.

Maybe it's an angel thing.

+

Some nights, Dean will wake up from nightmares, sometimes it'll be Castiel. Either way, they end up meeting in the lounge, Castiel will eventually read some book he found while Dean researches on the case of the week. They don't talk about it.

But they will. In a few weeks time, Dean and Castiel will start to share their nightmares and comfort each other about it. On a Thursday, Castiel will come into Dean's room. Dean will lift the blanket in invitation and will wrap his arm around Castiel's waist once he's settled.

The next morning, they will eat breakfast and drink coffee silently, but they will be smiling.

+

Castiel talks to Dean at night, even if he doesn't reply. Sometimes Dean is asleep and other times he's awake.

He tells Dean about being bent one night when he knows Dean isn't awake to hear it.

"It's not quite the same thing as being broken," Castiel says, "When it's broken, sometimes you can fix it, sometimes you can't. But you, Dean. You are strong, some may have the weight on your shoulders and be broken beyond repair. But not you. You're bent, Dean, and that means that you can be bent again to your previous state."

"Maybe we can bend each other back into place," Dean whispers. He's awake. He presses a kiss to Castiel's temple, and before Castiel can say anything, Dean's breathing evens out again.

They have pancakes that morning, and Dean kisses the top of Castiel's head when he gives a plate of it to him. Castiel smiles, in the moment he thinks humanely, _"Fuck it,"_ and grabs Dean by his shirt, and pulls him into an innocent, closed-mouthed kiss. Dean smiles into it.

"Finally." Sam whispers to himself. He sends messages to Charlie, Jody and Garth.

It's a new beginning, and it starts off with a simple kiss over pancakes and Sam rolling his eyes from the other side of the table.

+

Dean's bad on some nights. He'd drink and yell drunken things and not mean them, at all. These nights end with Dean sleeping on the couch and regretting it the next morning.

Sometimes it takes minutes for them to make up and continue on, but this time.

"I'm sorry I'm not good enough to promise to not fuck up again. I'm surprised that you have such low standards," Dean said on the previous night, before falling asleep on the couch with a bottle in hand.

"Why can't you realize that you are more than I ever deserve?" Castiel said as he kneeled down in front of Dean, who was sitting on the couch. He stroked his face. Dean leaned into the touch.

"Are you kidding me? Cas, all I do is hurt people I love, and they don't deserve it. Not at all." He stood up, "I'm gonna take a drive, not sure when I'll be back."

Dean's gone for a week. Castiel calls him on the eighth day while Dean's somewhere in Arizona, "Dean, please come back."

"Cas, I'm not good for you," Dean whispers, choking back a sob. "Please, find someone else who is,"

"You are so much more than what you think you are. I love you, Dean Winchester, and nothing will change that. Come back."

It takes him a long time to get back to the bunker, even though he drove non-stop. But he knocks on the door and Castiel's there, smiling and pulling Dean into a hug.

"That was not the way I was expecting to confess to you," Castiel says into Dean's shoulder.

"I don't care," Dean replies, "I love you too."

Dean doesn't know why Castiel still hasn't realized that Dean is a piece of shit and that he could do so much better if he tried, but until then, he decides that he'll make sure that Castiel knows just how much Dean loves and appreciate him. It was the least that he could do.

+

It's been a year since that night, and Hannah comes into the bunker unannounced, she hands Castiel a glowing vial.

"Is that-" Castiel starts.

"Yes," Hannah answers, "It's your grace, Castiel. It took a while, but with the help of Joshua, I was able to locate it. Heaven, with the gates wide once again, is back and order."

Dean looks at him like he'll lose him at any second.

"I-I think I need to be alone right now," Castiel stutters out, and runs out of the room and into one of the spare bedrooms.

It was a bad idea, Castiel thinks. Knowing Dean, he probably went to grab a bottle of whiskey to drown out.

Castiel wishes that Dean knew how significant he was in the grand scheme of things, how much he means to the world, how much he meant to Castiel.

Running away like that didn't fix anything at all, he realizes.

Take his grace back and he'll become and angel again. He would never grow old with Dean.

He knows what to do.

+

Castiel has been gone for five days, and Dean is lying down on the couch staring at the ceiling.

He should have known that it wouldn't last, shouldn't have let himself believe that it would last forever, that Castiel would stay. He should have-

There is a knock on the door.

Dean drags himself up to open it.

"Cas," He says, "Here to say goodbye?"

"No," Castiel says, questioningly, "Why would I say goodbye?"

"I dunno, you're racked up on angel juice again, you can do anything you want now."

"I've made my choice," Castiel says, "And it's to be with you."

Castiel hands him a velvet box, and Dean stares at it for what seems like decades but is only a few fleeting moments before he opens it.

A ring. It's beautiful, Dean thinks, with silver edges with a glass middle and-  
"Cas, is this your grace?" Dean asks asks as he picks up the ring-so gently like it could break if he squeezes too hard.

"It is," Castiel replies, "I want you to keep it for me, that is the closest thing I have to a soul and well, I'm yours. If you'll have me,"

"Cas," Dean whispers, his voice waivers.

+

There's no real ceremony, but some of Dean and Sam's friends show up at the Bunker for booze and a Game of Thrones marathon, and then suddenly Dean and Castiel are husbands and Jesus, Dean's never gonna get used to that.

Castiel's ring is plain silver with an inscription ('I'll always need you, angel') on the inside, and although Castiel insists that he really does love it, he refuses to take it off to prove his point, Dean knows that nothing can compare to the ring that Castiel gave him.

People come and go in the bunker, Charlie and Dorothy, Garth, Linda, Jody, and hell, even Tracy Bell, and Dean realizes that maybe they haven't lost as much as they thought while making PB&J's for Krissy and her gang.

The Winchesters are no longer considered young, as both of them are already in their late forties. They barely ever hunt now, especially since Sam's settled down in a picket fence house in suburbia, married, the whole nine yards. But they do give advice to the newcomers.

Evil does not just suddenly stop, and Dean and Sam think that it'll be a long time before the world is finally rid of it. Crowley's status is still pretty much unknown, hasn't made a single appearance since selling Dean out back in 2014 (Although Sam did get one text that said that Crowley hid the First Blade in Uranus, followed by a winky face) and there are still some rogue angels.

And, there will be a day when they will grow old and weary, and a day when Sam will die, and when Dean will die-from natural causes or otherwise- and Castiel will break his ring and become an angel again and follow him into Heaven, eventually those days will come.

But as Dean and Cas slow dance at 3 in the morning in the lounge to Hey Jude with nothing but boxer shorts, Dean thinks that they still have a long way to go and he's glad for it.

Castiel supposes that they've bent each other back into place.


End file.
